seminolewar

Tampa Times Articles Below

I added the articles below because I have them on my old, old website. And I recently found a photocopy that included the photos. The photos do more to show who are being highlighted in the article. Once these Creek descendants lost their language, and their culture, they ceased to become a tribal community, in my opinion. They are no different than the non-Indian community that surrounds them, that they have assimilated into. After that, if they are trying to make the appearance of being Indians, they are nothing more than a club.

They are no different than myself trying to declare myself a German citizen because I had a German great-great-grandfather who died a hundred years ago. At first I knew nothing of the German language and culture, but the Army sent me over there, and I discovered a really nice country with good beer and food. They have government housing for poor folks that was in better condition than my Army barracks, and the German government would also give its citizens medical care and unemployment that I did not have the same opportunity to receive. So because I had a German g-g-gf, I will declare myself a German, and get together a group of people to organize the German state of Ober-Bayernisch. Now if I had just wanted to join the local German-American club, or the Irish-American club, and participate with the annual festivals, parades, or dances, nothing would be wrong with that. See my point?

If the new Creeks in the aricles below, (the majority of whom in the articles have now passed away) were following the old ways of their ancestors. The traditional Creek ways, trying to learn the language, stomps, ceremonial practices, and collecting native herbs and medicine, they might have had a chance at recognition, but they were not doing any of that. Now you have the ultimate crime of the culture, where the tribal leadership of Poarch dug up their ancestors and disturbed burial grounds, desecrated sacred ground, and are building a modern casino on top. Which violates the reason they were given the land from the beginning, which was to preserve it and leave it undisturbed.

There are a few people still alive who remember some of the old fragments of traditions, language, and ceremonies, but within a few years they will all be passed away. I think that we are truly witnessing the death of a culture, and it is extremely painful to see.